‘Nagaland did not receive MCG funds in 2011-12 to 2012-13’

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 7: Nagaland did not receive matching cash grants as part of micro finance (MF) during the 2011-12 to 2012-13 financial tenure. This information of the development authorities state that four districts namely Kohima, Mokokchung, Tuensang and Mon received funds during a previous fiscal tenure but during the mentioned period funds were not sanctioned.
The department of Rural Development in Nagaland implements several programmes that aim at poverty alleviation, employment generation and improving the quality of life in the rural areas.

The development programmes are implemented through provisions of financial assistance from both the centre and the state governments. The funding pattern for all the centrally sponsored schemes are in the ratio of 90:10 where the share of the central govt. is 90% while the state-share is 10%.

Some of the major programmes currently being implemented by the Rural Development department in the state are grant-in-aid (GIA); Matching Cash Grant; Village Development Board welfare fund; Mahatma Gandhi National

Rural Employment Guaranteed Scheme; Backward Region Grant Fund; Nagaland State Rural Livelihood Mission; and Promotion of Micro Finance.

An evaluation and study about the working and impact of the Village Development Board in Nagaland was conducted by the state’s directorate of Evaluation.

According to the study, an attempt was made to obtain the figures concerning the allocations that were received from both the central and the state’s government for the reference period from 2008-2009 to 2012-2013.

Out of the 1185 village development boards in the state, a sample of 362 boards was selected for the study with five years’ reference period from 2008-09 to 2012-13.

The amount of funds, according to the directorate of Rural Development, received by the department as state-share:

Different structured schedules were used to collect information from dept. officials, village council chairpersons, VDB secretaries and 3603 beneficiaries of VDB schemes. This was stated by the ex-officio director, Kevileno Angami, in the report. However, only the funds that were received as state-share were furnished by the Rural Development department.

As stated in the table, the Rural Development directorate received the state-share totalling INR 1299.31 lakh during 2008-09 to 2012-13.

For the micro finance state-share, funds amounting to INR 485 lakh were received during 2008-09. However in the year 2009-10, no fund was sanctioned for the scheme, the report maintained. It was reported that in the year 2010-11 four districts namely Kohima, Mokokchung, Tuensang and Mon reported receipt of funds as part of the scheme.

The rest of the districts were not allocated funds from it. MCG funds were sanctioned to all the districts during 2008-09 to 2010-11. But in 2011-12 to 2012-13 the funds were not sanctioned.

During the reference period from 2008-09 to 2012-13, Dimapur district received the highest amount of funds at INR 38282.52 lakh from various schemes of the Rural Development dept.

This was followed by Kohima with INR 37373.8 lakh, Mon with INR 30447.5 lakh, Zunheboto with INR 26789.44 lakh, Mokokchung with INR 26172.62 lakh; Tuensang with INR 25962.18 lakh; Phek with INR 23221.25; Peren with INR 21627.02 lakh; Wokha with INR 19625.93 lakh; Longleng with INR 18399.78 lakh; and Kiphire with INR 16573.66 lakh.